Multiapp usage is absolutely normal when it comes to messaging; just as we’ve seen multinetworking proliferate–whereby people are maintaining accounts on a wide range of networks–so the same trend is in evidence here. Take a service like Snapchat and more than seven in 10 of its users are active on Facebook Messenger, too. More than 50 percent of Snapchatters are also WhatsAppers.

Evidently, we need to reject the notion that people tend to use one app only; to the contrary, they are happy to operate across a wide range of them. In some cases (e.g., WeChat, Telegram, Tango, Kik), users are actually active on around five different chat apps. Fostering a sense of loyalty among such audiences is thus a major challenge.